Designers challenge UCD to be People-Centred

'Beyond user centred design' turned out to be the emphasis at the New Media Knowledge evening on UCD and beyond in late March.

The brainchild of Luke Skrebowski of Oyster, the panel section of the event opened with Skrebowski's cheeky definition of UCD involving a sketch of five UCD 'gurus' and a paraphrase of their positions, summed up as:

* UCD as balance – Don Norman
* UCD as best practice – Alison Black
* UCD as process – Jesse James Garrett
* UCD as approach – Nathan Shedroff
* UCD as philosophy – Peter Merholz

'I would suggest we block our ears and take a step back,' he said, producing a sixth guru: Foucault, whom he called the guru's guru. 'I am interested in his idea of 'not what but how'.' (Again during questions, he reiterated the importance of understanding one's own perspective and how it shapes one's practice.)

With that, he handed over to the other presenters of the night. Jane Austin of Recollective spoke next, claiming a perspective of UCD as balance, in this case between designing effective functions and designing aesthetically. She made a good case for why aesthetics are important to UCD, exploring process, outcome and affect and citing research that illustrates how beauty impacts upon perceptions of usability. 'To move forward from UCD, we must accept that users respond to interface beauty,' she said. 'The user isn't the hero; aesthetics has value. The designer isn't the hero; they must work from a solid basis in the user's needs.'

She pointed out that in an analysis of complaints she had seen, content drew the most criticisms, followed by loading times and poor aesthetics. Only then did usability problems start to get a mention.

There were two other presentations during the evening: Bill Gaver of the Royal College of Art (whose description of cultural probes is the subject of another UN story to appear in the next few days) and Sarah Morris of Skybluepink (who gave a similar talk last year, reported in UN story Designers argue that Different Brains demand a Different Design Style for Women). Morris, with colleague Amy Branton, contrasted user-cented design with 'people-centred design'.

Their argument is that UCD takes a more scientific, and therefore reductive, view of people and their behaviour, whereas ethnographic types of research yield insights that inform design as well as functionality. They were perhaps the most controversial speakers, labelling HCI as cognitivist and criticising businesses for their lack of interest in real people.

The audience, of whom a majority were designers, then asked questions, many about the viability of the methods presented. At one point, too, the presenters found themselves engaged in a debate about the value of usability and the willingness of some businesses to undertake user research. It is clear that different definitions of what constitutes valuable research exist even within the design world.

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